Saturday, November 1, 2014

GGMMMU ~ representing Angels with an Interview is author Paula Westin

Paula Weston lives in Brisbane, Australia, with her husband
and their retired greyhound. She reads widely. Shadows, book one of the
four-book Rephaim series, was her first novel. Haze is the second in the
series. Visit her website at paula-weston.com for more information. (Twitter:
@PaulaWeston)

She was kind enough to represent angels for me and to sponsor three print copies of her book which I put in the main giveaway. :-) Thank you very much Paula!

How do you envision
your angels? Do you picture them as the ones depicted in the Bible?Are yours sexy? Describe them for us so that
we can picture them please. It would be
fair to say my fallen angels are inspired by traditional Judeo-Christian ideas
about angels, in that they are warriors. However, the majority of my characters
are wingless half-angel/half-humans (the Rephaim), so while they have
supernatural traits, they mostly look and act human. And yes, some of them are
a little sexy…

The Rephaim
are being hunted by several breeds of demons who are far less sexy (and whose
appearance is not based on biblical demons).

There are
Gatekeeper demons, who are tall, human-like men with long white hair and irises
that appear to be on fire. These guys are often seen in trench coats,
regardless of the climate. Then there are hellions, which are much more
animalistic hell-beasts with leathery skin, yellow eyes, sharp teeth and claws.
They either lumber or walk upright and are about the size of a line backer. The
third type of demon in the series (who first appear in the second book, Haze) are the Immundi: short demons who
move a little like monkeys, have bobble-heads, black eyes, black nails and sharp
teeth – and who have a tendency to dress in suits.

Where did your
inspiration for your angels/half-angels come from? The idea to write about angels and
half-angels came when I was working out world building around the characters
who were my starting point for the Rephaim series.

The first book, Shadows, started as a scene in my head
that I couldn’t stop thinking about. It involved a girl and guy who were
attracted to each other, but who had a complicated history that only he
remembered. I knew there were supernatural elements in how she’d lost her
memory and that the two of them were part of a wider conflict and had ended up
on different sides.

When I started researching
world-building options to figure out their story, I came across the Book of Enoch.
It’s a (real) two-thousand-year-old text that talks about angels being kicked
out of heaven for getting a little too friendly with human women (a story not
considered as doctrine by mainstream churches). I started thinking about what
would happen if those angels got free again and fathered children. And then
what the consequences would be for those half-angels, and how that could relate
to my two characters. From there, the world of the Rephaim was born and Gaby
and Rafa’s story came together.

At the start of the series Gaby
has no idea she’s not human, so it wouldn’t have made sense for her to have
wings (that probably would’ve tipped her off), so I decided the Rephaim would
be wingless. That then helped create a strong point of difference between the Rephaim
and Nathaniel, the fallen angel who raised them and built them into a society
of warriors. (Even though Nathaniel is fallen, he still has his wings. He’s
paid for his ‘fall’ in other ways.)

What do you envision
their greatest characteristic, ability or power to be? Their worst? The Rephaim
have inherited two very important traits from their fallen fathers: they are
immortal (unless they lose their heads) and they can travel in the blink of an
eye to anywhere in the world (with practice). They’re also excellent fighters, but that has as much to do with their decades
of constant training as it does with their physical traits.

Their worst
characteristic? For some of them, it’s their human traits: impatience, quick
temper and the habit of solving problems with violence. But, of course, their
humanity is also one of their best traits too.

Would you consider your
“monster” to be good or bad? What is their greatest enemy? Do they have any
allies? The Rephaim
are divided into two camps: those loyal to Nathaniel, and the Outcasts – a
group of Rephaim who question Nathaniel’s authority (and the destiny he claims
they must fulfill). One of the big questions of the series is which group is
‘right’. Both sides have their ‘good’ and ‘bad’ elements, which is what makes
it so tricky for Gaby to decide who she should trust, given she can’t remember
either side. But, compared to the three types of demons mentioned earlier, they
definitely fall in the ‘good’ category. Their greatest enemies are the
Gatekeeper demons, who are the strongest and fastest of the demons hunting
them.

The only
allies the Rephaim have are each other: when push comes to shove – given a
common enemy – they can overcome their differences and fight side by side.

Why do you think angels
are most often portrayed as male? That’s
probably the Judeo-Christian influence again – intentionally or otherwise –
where angels in traditional texts are always male.

Choose three of the
following and tell us what your creature would do with them, make out of them,
use them for or what reaction they would have to them: I’ll use
Rafa (a member of the Rephaim) for this exercise:

·A piece of pizza heavily dosed with garlic: eat
it (and the rest of the pizza) and wash it down with a six-pack of beer.

·A wooden club: use it to pummel a demon in a
fight, but only if his katana’s not handy.

·A baby: give it a wide berth. Rafa has next to no
experience with children and I imagine a baby would scare the crap out of him.

What is your monster
most afraid of? What makes it happy? Rafa’s not
afraid of much, particularly when it comes to physical threats. He’s more
afraid of Gaby finding out what really happened between them in past – and what
she’ll do to him when she does.

Gaby, on the
other hand, has plenty of fears: that she’s making the wrong choices; that she
won’t be able to protect the people she cares about; and that she did something
terrible in the past before she lost her memories.

What is the most
bizarre name for an angel or demon that you can think of? In the
Rephaim series, I’ve named a demon Leon. It still cracks me up. (It’s short for
Leonard, which my online research assures me is indeed a demon name.)

What do you think is
the most misconstrued idea about angels? I don’t
think they’re necessarily sweet or kind or romantic, and I’m talking angels and
fallen angels here, not the Rephaim (who are only half angel). I think of
angels as relentless warriors who have been fighting wars and demons for
millennia. That’s not to say they don’t have a sense of justice or mercy, only
that they are first and foremost creatures of violence.

What is your favorite type
of monster to write about? Read about? I still
enjoy a good vampire story (as a reader) and I really loved the take on zombies
in M.R. Carey’s The Girl with All The Gifts.

Blurb for Shadows

It's almost a year since Gaby Winters watched her twin
brother die. In the sunshine of a new town her body has healed, but her grief
is raw and constant. It doesn't help that every night in her dreams she fights
and kills hell-beasts. And then Rafa comes to town. Not only does he look
exactly like the guy who's been appearing in Gaby's dreams, he tells her things
about her brother and her life that cannot be true, things that are dangerous.
Who is Rafa? Who are the Rephaim? And who is Gaby? The truth lies in the
shadows of her nightmares.

Gaby Winters' life used to be pretty normal. She lived with
her best friend. She worked in a library. She was slowly getting over the death
of her twin brother, Jude. And then Rafa came looking for her.

With him, her blood-soaked nightmares stopped. But now they
are reality. She is one of the Rephaim - a wingless half angel, descended from
the Fallen. Demons exist and they are hunting her.

She knows she's alive when she's meant to be dead. And that
means maybe Jude is too. So why isn't she out there looking for him?

I've been wanting to read this series. It really sounds intriguing. And I've heard of the book of Enoch. I remember reading about it when I was younger. The idea that there could be half angels out there or that you could be a relation always fascinated me.

About Me

I am a middle aged wife and mother of three boys. Because life is often hectic, I self medicate with good books! It is a cheap form of therapy. I have found that it does wonders for my sanity! lol!
My favorite types of books to read are paranormal romance, contemporary romance, urban fantasy,and young adult.

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If you are an author, publisher, or publicist that would like me to review a book, email me: brendem7@comcast.net.

Mostly I read paranormal and contemporary romances, young adult, and urban fantasy. I do not like historicals or horror!

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